Testosterone deficiency causes heart diseases, diabetes

Tuesday, September 29, 2009, 12:14 This news item was posted in health category and has 0 Comments so far.

Sex hormones like testosterone deficiency can lead to diseases including heart disease and diabetes.

Sex hormone or androgen deficiency might be the underlying cause for a variety of common clinical conditions, including diabetes, erectile dysfunction, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in collaboration with researchers from Lahey Clinic Northshore, Peabody, Mass say.

Testosterone and androgens controls the development and maintenance of male characteristics.

Deficiency of the steroid hormone, such as testosterone, has been linked to an increased mortality in men, according in the September/October issue of the Journal of Andrology.

“In view of the emerging evidence suggesting that androgen deficiency is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, androgen replacement therapy could potentially reduce CVD risk in hypogonadal men,”Abdulmaged M. Traish, MBA, PhD, a professor of biochemistry and urology as well as the director of Laboratories for Sexual Medicine, Institute for Sexual Medicine at BUSM.

The researchers performed a comprehensive literature search with the use of Pub Med from 1980 through 2008, to evaluate the relationships between testosterone deficiency and risk factors of cardiovascular diseases in cluding heart disease and to determine the implications of androgen deficiency in men with cardiovascular risk factors.

Reserachers finally arrived at a conclusion that a relationship did exist between androgen deficiency and CVD, after searching through relevant articles pertinent to androgen deficiency and vascular disease were evaluated.

However, the researchers emphasize that androgen replacement therapy should be done with very thorough and careful monitoring for prostate diseases.

Testosterone has several beneficial effects on men’s health an anabolic hormone. But testosterone therapeutic role in men’s health remains a hotly debated issue for a number of reasons, because testosterone is often linked with risk of prostate cancer.

Besides promoting libido it has other important functions such as maintaining muscle mass, forming bone, and regulating heart muscle and cholesterol. Testosterone also helps to improve the oxygen levels throughout the body as well as controlling blood glucose and strengthening the immune syste

Testosterone levels start to diminish giving way its by-product prolactin of testosterone to rise of men increases, stimulating the production of the enzyme 5-alpha reductase that causes the conversion of testosterone to gihydro-testosterones DHT thus triggering low levels of testosterone.

The heart has many testosterone receptor sites that helps to support the muscle building of the heart and protein synthesis, as well as coronary artery dilation, and maintains healthy cholesterol.

Testosterone is not only responsible for maintaining heart muscle protein synthesis, it also helps a promoter of coronary artery dilation. Low levels of testosterone no longer maintaining the function of artery dilation and artery elasticity diminishes.

Fat cells create aromatase enzymes that contribute to fat build up and low levels of testosterone that allows the forming of abdominal fat that produces more aromatase enzyme resulting in more formation of estrogen. This also leads to insulin resistance by increasing fat around the stomach or waist area and fat mass.

Metabolic syndrome ie., obesity, type II diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and, ultimately, coronary artery disease developed in more that half the men deprived of testosterone during treatment for prostate cancer, a study out of Johns Hopkins in the August 2006 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology showed.

Testosterone deficiency syndrome is found in over 50% of men with Type 2 diabetes, more than double the rate in the non-diabetic population. Testosterone deficiency syndrome is associated with a 42% additional risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, and up to 60% additional risk of all-cause and coronary heart disease mortality, according to data presented in March at the Diabetes UK Annual Conference.